conclusion of strategic management essay

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

1.7 Conclusion

This chapter provides an overview of strategic management and strategy. Ideas about strategy span many centuries, and modern understanding of strategy borrows from ancient strategies as well as classic military strategies. You should now understand that there are numerous ways to conceptualize the idea of strategy, and that effective strategic management is needed to ensure the long-term success of firms. The study of strategic management provides tools to effectively manage organizations, but it also involves the art of knowing how and when to apply creative thinking. Knowledge of both the art and the science of strategic management is needed to help guide organizations as their strategies emerge and evolve over time. Such tools will also help you effectively chart a course for your career as well as to understand the effective strategic management of the organizations for which you will work.

• Think about the best and worst companies you know. What is extraordinary (or extraordinarily bad) about these firms? Are their strategies clear and focused or difficult to define?
• If you were to write a “key takeaway” section for this chapter, what would you include as the material you found most interesting?

Strategic Management Copyright © 2020 by Reed Kennedy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter 1: Mastering Strategy: Art and Science

This chapter provides an overview of strategic management and strategy. Ideas about strategy span many centuries, and modern understanding of strategy borrows from ancient strategies as well as classic military strategies. You should now understand that there are numerous ways to conceptualize the idea of strategy, and that effective strategic management is needed to ensure the long-term success of firms. The study of strategic management provides tools to effectively manage organizations, but it also involves the art of knowing how and when to apply creative thinking. Knowledge of both the art and the science of strategic management is needed to help guide organizations as their strategies emerge and evolve over time. Such tools will also help you effectively chart a course for your career as well as to understand the effective strategic management of the organizations for which you will work.

• Think about the best and worst companies you know. What is extraordinary (or extraordinarily bad) about these firms? Are their strategies clear and focused or difficult to define?
• If you were to write a “key takeaway” section for this chapter, what would you include as the material you found most interesting?

Attributions

Figure 1.8:

Ramese II Statue in Luxor Temple by Clarence is used under a CC BY 2.0 Licence  (first);

Samurai with sword by Britannica is in the Public Domain (second);

Trojan horse Çanakkale by Ross Burgess is used under CC BY-SA 2.0 Licence  (third);

Tewkesbury Medieval Festival 2008 – Hail Sir Knight by Andy Dolman is used under CC BY-SA 2.0 Licence  (fourth).

Figure 1.9: Macchiavelli by JoJan is used under a CC BY 3.0 Licence (first);

George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1795-65 is in the Public Domain (second);

Portrait of Napoleon in his study at the Tuileries is in the Public Domain (third);

Major General George H. Thomas by dbking is used under a CC BY 2.0 Licence (fourth);

Mk XIX Supermarine Spitfire by David Merrett is used under CC BY 2.0 Licence ,

IS-2 tank Monument at WWII Memorial in Shatki by Bestalex is used under CC BY-SA 2.0 Licence (fifth)

Figure 1.10: Ford Model T at the White House by Don O’Brien is used under CC BY 2.0 Licence  (top left);

Harvard  by PDru2014 is used under CC BY 2.0 Licence (top right);

Frederick Winslow Taylor crop is in the Public Domain (top middle);

Sam Walton 1936 by Grey Wanderer is in the Public Domain (bottom middle);

Amazon Kindle 3 by NotFromUtrecht is used under CC BY-SA 2.0 Licence  (bottom left);

The Blue Marble by NASA is in the Public Domain (bottom right)

Mastering Strategic Management - 1st Canadian Edition Copyright © 2014 by Janice Edwards is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

5 Conclusion

[Author removed at request of original publisher]

This chapter provides an overview of strategic management and strategy. Ideas about strategy span many centuries, and modern understanding of strategy borrows from ancient strategies as well as classic militaries strategies. You should now understand that there are numerous ways to conceptualize the idea of strategy and that effective strategic management is needed to ensure the long-term success of firms. The study of strategic management provides tools to effectively manage organizations, but it also involves the art of knowing how and when to apply creative thinking. Knowledge of both the art and the science of strategic management is needed to help guide organizations as their strategies emerge and evolve over time. Such tools will also help you effectively chart a course for your career as well as to understand the effective strategic management of the organizations for which you will work.

• Think about the best and worst companies you know. What is extraordinary (or extraordinarily bad) about these firms? Are their strategies clear and focused or difficult to define?
• If you were to write a “key takeaway” section for this chapter, what would you include as the material you found most interesting?

Strategic Management v2 Copyright © by [Author removed at request of original publisher] is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Essay on Strategic Management: Top 7 Essays

Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Strategic Management’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Strategic Management’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on Strategic Management

Essay Contents:

• Essay on CEO’s Functions in Strategic Management

Essay # 1. Definition of Strategic Management:

The term ‘strategic management’ has been defined differently by different scholars of management.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Some of them are:

1. Strategic management is “ a set of decisions and actions resulting in formulation and implementation of strategies designed to achieve the objectives of an organisation” (Pearce and Richard Robinson).

2. Strategic management is “the manner by which organisations plan to deal with various aspects of management like problem perception, divergent thinking, substantial resources, decision making, innovations and risk-taking” (Cunningham).

3. Strategic management is “the means by which management establishes purpose and pursues the purpose through co-alignment of organisational resources with environment, opportunities, and constraints.” (Bourgeois).

4. Strategic management can be defined as “the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organisation to achieve its objectives” (Glueck).

(a) Strategic management is an on-going process of analysis, planning and action. It attempts to keep an organisation aligned with its environment while capitalising on organisational strengths and environmental opportunities and minimising or avoiding organisational weaknesses and external threats, and

(b) Strategic management is also a future-oriented provocative management system. The managers, who use strategic management skills, are seeking a competitive advantage for their organisations and long-term organisational effectiveness.

It is, therefore, a complex function covering all activities connected with formulating, implementing, recycling and reformulating strategies.

In short, an effective strategic management translates a sound strategy into action. As otherwise, even a sound strategy would be rendered ineffective if it cannot be converted into action.

Hence, it is the duty of the strategic managers to do environmental scanning, assess internal strengths and weaknesses, set goals, mobilise resources, design action plans, implement actions, monitor progress, and control resources and deviations from goals for the achievement of goals and key results areas.

Essay # 2. Process of Strategic Management:

The strategic management process is most often described as a rational and analytical one.

The process consists of the following activities in different phases:

(i) Environmental Scanning:

Threats and opportunities analysis.

This involves analysing each threat and opportunity according to its time frame (i.e., short term or long term). Significance and likelihood of occurrence can help focus on the’ most important threats and opportunities.

In identifying them in the organisation’s environment, three questions need to be kept in mind:

(i) Which threats are critical and  how can they be avoided in order to derive opportunities?

(ii) Which opportunities are critical and must be exploited?

(iii) Which threats and opportunities are short-terms and which are long-term?

(ii) Organisational Analysis:

Mission, Strengths and Weaknesses analysis.

An organisational analysis begins with an analysis of how the organisation is performing and why. A broad statement about purpose, philosophy, and goals would guide executive actions, by the processes of evaluation.

(iii) Strategic Goals Setting:

Understandable, measurable, achievable and challenging long-term goals.

It is necessary to set annual objectives in line with long-term objectives as well as specifying functional strategies consistent with the company’s grand strategy Such goals should be measured in terms of quality, cost, and time-frame.

A chart below classifies and explains the ‘Goals’:

Given the mission and objectives and having done the SWOT analysis, the strategic manager should proceed to generate possible ‘strategy alternatives’. There may be different ‘strategic options’ for accomplishing a particular goal. It is necessary to consider all possible alternatives to make the base for a choice.

The purpose of considering different ‘strategic options’ is to adopt the most appropriate strategy as ‘goal’. This necessitates the evaluation of the ‘strategy alternatives’ with reference to the criteria like suitability, feasibility and acceptability.

(iv) Strategic Actions Formulations:

An action plan to achieve the goals.

Strategic actions flow from the goals of the organisation. A strategy sets forth a general programme of action and an implied development of employees and resources to obtain goals.

This strategic action can be taken from three approaches:

(a) Func­tional approach,

(b) Product approach, and

(c) Business Units grouping approach.

Here, ‘business units grouping’ approach works well in diversified enterprises. All these approaches involve choosing target markets, and product and product development plans, capital expenditure plans, and marketing plans. For all major actions, the aspects of timing and sequencing should be considered.

(v) Strategy Implementation:

Spelling out effective policies or operating procedures to initiate actions for implementing strategy.

This involves translating the strategies into organisational actions. This requires ‘strategic leadership’ i.e., identifying policies, rules, and key results areas; allocating responsibilities; and making operational plans and day-to-day decisions.

Strategy implementation is, thus, the action phase of the strategic management process. This step, therefore, encompasses the operational details to translate the strategy into effective practice.

A simple chart below sums up the implementation phase:

(vi) Strategy Evaluation and Control:

Monitoring progress of strategic actions and controlling the resources.

This includes both monitoring progress and control resources—human/physical/ financial—by analysing the deviations from standards and goals and providing the feedback for modifications.

It is important to note that traditional control parameters are not adequate here as they delay the results and thereby become a useless exercise to face the environmental risks and uncertainties. In contrast to ‘past-action control’, strategic control is forward looking and attempts to steer the company on a long-term basis.

Essay # 3. Stages of Strategic Planning Process:

Stage 1. Defining the mission.

Stage 2. Assessing organisational Resources.

Stage 3. Evaluating Environmental risks and opportunities.

Stage 4. Establishing long-term Objectives.

Stage 5. Formulating strategy.

Stage 6. Establishing Annual Objectives.

Stage 7. Establishing Operational Plans.

Stage 8. Implementing the Plans.

Stage 9. Imple­menting, Monitoring and Adapting.

These stages seldom occur in a fixed sequence, and some may take place simulta­neously, but given the flexibility needed for a bit of cycling— revising, seeking authorisations and coordinating—some rationale exists for considering the stages in the order presented (Williams, Du Brin & Sisk, 1985).

Strategies are designed by top management of an enterprise. They come to be as a result of the strategic planning process.

Essay # 4. Characteristics of Strategic Management Process:

The basic characteristics of the strategic planning process may be as follows:

1. It is the place where decisions of highest importance to a company are made. Here is where the basic thrust and direction of the company is determined and the major approaches are decided.

2. The time spectrum covered ranges from the very short range to infinity. Although the general thrust is long-range, a decision can be made in this process to stop producing Product X tomorrow or start to build tomorrow a new plant to produce the Product Y.

3. The process may produce a written document on a periodic basis, say annually—yet the process is a continuous activity. Top management cannot, of course, develop a strategic plan once a year and forget strategy in the meantime.

4. Compared with medium-range and short-range planning, the results of strategic planning process are not usually neatly incorporated into a prescribed form.

5. Strategic planning covers any element of the business that is important at the time of analysis and embodies details that are of sufficient scope and depth to provide the necessary basis for implementation.

6. The format of strategic plans is much more flexible and variable in content, from time to time, than for other types of plans.

7. Strategic planning process has many starting points, each different from the other.

8. Strategic planning is especially appropriate in volatile industries, such as the computer or telecommunication or anti-pollution industries where technological change is rapid and international competition is fierce.

9. Strategic planning is uniquely suited for providing ‘a broad managerial perspective which rescues management from the tunnel vision of unanalysed assumptions and fuzzy objectives’.

10. Strategic planning, even if the methods as well as the human resources and other situational variables differ greatly from one firm to another, is an increasingly necessary aspect of effective management.

Essay # 5 . Factors and Elements of Strategic Planning Process:

From the above, we see that the general contents of strategic planning process are:

(i) Objective of enterprise,

(ii) Basic mission,.

(iii) Basic strategies, and

(iv) Operational plans.

The factors and main elements of strategic planning process can be best identified and shown in a model below:

As we can see, strategic planning involves the development of objectives (step 1 in the planning process). Next the top management searches for the environment.

Next top management weighs the advantages of the several strategies considered and chooses one. It outlines the general organisational and policy changes necessitated by its strategic choice. It then delegates detailed planning and implementation activities to its middle management. Top management also sets budget levels and indicates general usage of funds; detailed budgeting is done by middle management.

Strategic planning is exciting. It involves decisions like: Xerox Corporation’s decision to enter (and leave) the computer field, Reliance Industries’ decision to get out of textiles and become a conglomerate, or Cadbury chocolate’s decision to become Cadbury Foods (all hypothetical).

Essay # 6 . CEO’s Role in Strategic Management:

The increasing time demands of strategic management have nowadays forced top managements among the larger companies to delegate more and more of the operating authority for running the business to lower-level managers.

Some companies today have Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) who are concerned essentially with outside environmental forces, and Chief Operating Officers (COOs) who are concerned primarily with running the day-to-day affairs of the business. In these cases as well as in others where there is no COO or its equivalent, more authority is usually being delegated to middle managers.

This does not mean that top managements remain unconcerned about the day-to-day operational matters. Only thing is that, in the changing environment from that of the past, the top managements are forced to spend much less time on routine operating matters and to devote much more time on strategic issues.

The most important case in point is that managerial strategies in large-sized organisations are considerably different from the operational strategies needed. After all, corporate level strategy in the changing environment is essential for success and growth, and for competitive advantage. Herein, comes the role of the chief strategist, the CEO.

The chief strategist is faced with three basic questions:

(1) What business are we in?

(2) How are we to match the best product-market opportunities?

(3) How are we to make best use of the company resources?

The first two questions are concerned with corporate-level strategies, while the third question relates to operational-level strategy. The CEO must conceptualise the whole strata of strategy as he is at the top. CEO is responsible for relating his organisation to a changing environment.

He alone is responsible for assuring the proper balance among various competing subsystems in the organisation. He alone is responsible for determining the total thrust of his organisation and for assuring that performance matches with his design. So, the role of the CEO is unique and so is his way of thinking.

Again, the CEO is expected to concentrate on the total enterprise rather than parts of it, and in the process ‘entirely new phenomena take place’.

CEO has to think in these terms. The thought processes, the attitudes, the perspective, the methods of analysis and the skills in the total strategic management process are unique and of demanding nature and call for higher level dynamism and initiative. CEO, as the chief strategist, has to have widest vision in these respects.

Essay # 7 . CEO’s Functions in Strategic Management:

Mintzberg’s classification of ‘Ten Managerial Work Roles’ vis-a-vis the functions/roles that concern the chief strategist is given below for better comprehension:

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

6.5 Conclusion

This chapter explains competitive and cooperative moves that executives may choose from when challenged by competitors. Executives may choose to act swiftly by being a first mover in their market, and their firms may benefit if they are offering disruptive innovations to an industry. Executives may also choose a more conservative route by establishing a foothold within an area that can serve as a launching point or by avoiding existing competitors overall by using a blue ocean strategy. When firms are on the receiving end of a competitive attack, they are likely to retaliate to the extent that they possess awareness, motivation, and capability. While responding quickly is often beneficial, mutual forbearance can also be an effective approach. When firms encounter a potentially disruptive innovation, they might ignore the threat, confront it head on, or attack along a different dimension. Executives may also react to competitive attacks by using fighting brands. Rather than engaging in a head-to-head battle with competitors, executives may also choose to engage in a cooperative strategy such as a joint venture, strategic alliance, colocation, or co-opetition. Regardless of the decision executives make, in many cases any attempt to act on a viable road map will result in progress that will get the firm moving in the right direction.

• Divide your class into four or eight groups, depending on the size of the class. Each group should select a different industry. Find examples of competitive and cooperative moves that you would recommend if hired as a consultant for a firm in that industry.
• What types of cooperative moves could your college or university use to partner with local, national, and international businesses? What benefits and risks would be created by making these moves?

Mastering Strategic Management Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

• Undergraduate
• High School
• Architecture
• American History
• Asian History
• Antique Literature
• American Literature
• Asian Literature
• Classic English Literature
• World Literature
• Creative Writing
• Linguistics
• Criminal Justice
• Legal Issues
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Political Science
• World Affairs
• African-American Studies
• East European Studies
• Latin-American Studies
• Native-American Studies
• West European Studies
• Family and Consumer Science
• Social Issues
• Women and Gender Studies
• Social Work
• Natural Sciences
• Pharmacology
• Earth science
• Agriculture
• Agricultural Studies
• Computer Science
• IT Management
• Mathematics
• Investments
• Engineering and Technology
• Engineering
• Aeronautics
• Medicine and Health
• Alternative Medicine
• Communications and Media
• Advertising
• Communication Strategies
• Public Relations
• Educational Theories
• Teacher's Career
• Chicago/Turabian
• Company Analysis
• Education Theories
• Shakespeare
• Canadian Studies
• Food Safety
• Relation of Global Warming and Extreme Weather Condition
• Movie Review
• Admission Essay
• Annotated Bibliography
• Application Essay
• Article Critique
• Article Review
• Article Writing
• Book Review
• Business Plan
• Business Proposal
• Capstone Project
• Cover Letter
• Creative Essay
• Dissertation
• Dissertation - Abstract
• Dissertation - Conclusion
• Dissertation - Discussion
• Dissertation - Hypothesis
• Dissertation - Introduction
• Dissertation - Literature
• Dissertation - Methodology
• Dissertation - Results
• GCSE Coursework
• Grant Proposal
• Marketing Plan
• Multiple Choice Quiz
• Personal Statement
• Power Point Presentation
• Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes
• Questionnaire
• Reaction Paper

Research Paper

• Research Proposal
• SWOT analysis
• Thesis Paper
• Online Quiz
• Literature Review
• Movie Analysis
• Statistics problem
• Math Problem
• All papers examples
• How It Works
• Money Back Policy
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• We Are Hiring

Strategic Management, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 642

Hire a Writer for Custom Essay

Use 10% Off Discount: "custom10" in 1 Click 👇

You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work.

Introduction

That information technology is the critical element of present day strategic management no one can deny. With the rapid advancement of IT, more and more firms and organizations adopt IT as an effective tool of managing their strategic resources and balancing them with the sophisticated organizational needs. However, nowhere else is the role of IT as critical as in businesses which actually manage, produce, and distribute these technological benefits. In their article, WSJ Staff discuss the letter of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to customers about the new role of technology spending and the need for adapting technology needs.

In his letter to customers, Microsoft CEO provides a detailed discussion of what, in his view, is “the new normal” – the term coined to distinguish the new economic reality from that before the latest financial crisis. Ballmer believes that the mere term “the new normal” indicates that “after years of economic expansion fueled by unrealistic rates of consumption and unsustainable levels of private debt, the global economy has reset at a lower baseline level of activity. Today, people borrow less, save more, and spend with much greater caution” (WSJ Staff). However, the problem is not in that the world economy has undergone a profound shift, but in how businesses should adapt their strategic needs to the new economic conditions and visions. Ballmer is confident that to make businesses efficient in the new economy, it is essential that firms and organizations build their strategies on technology and use technology to improve cost savings, to raise performance, to improve productivity, and to speed innovation (WSJ Staff). At the same time, cost saving, in Ballmer’s view, can hardly be a long-term winning strategy for businesses. Rather, delivering value to customers and increasing productivity are the two major source of long-term competitive advantage in any industry. With this information at hand, and for the purposes of building a sustainable strategic vision, organizations can (a) improve their data security; (b) deploy the new generation of business solutions which turn IT into a strategic business asset; and (c) use technologies to help employees build a new marketing insight and meet unfulfilled customer needs (WSJ Staff).

The relation of this article to strategic management is obvious. Strategic management usually encompasses a wide array of management visions and techniques, and taking into account that strategic management implies the need for managing strategic resources in a way that links businesses to the new economic order and helps them expand their market niche. It appears that with the growing sophistication of technological needs and with the rapid technological advancement, strategic management is no longer limited to strategy formulation and its implementation but requires developing and using the new strategic principles of knowledge management and building a new technological mindset. As such, strategic management is no longer possible without technology. As Ballmer shows, technology has already turned into the source of sustained competitive advantage and becomes even more critical in conditions of the current economic crisis. Unfortunately, in its current state, strategic management tends to disregard the role of technology in building the new business and corporate image among consumers, but managers must realize the unlimited potential of technology in driving cost saving and speeding innovation as the major prerequisite of continuous business success.

That technology is the critical element of any business performance is difficult to deny, but not all businesses do realize the value and strategic potential of technologies in management. For Steve Ballmer, technology stands out as the major source of sustained competitive advantage and innovation. Given the current economic difficulties and the need for businesses to balance their sophisticated needs with limited resources, technology can readily contribute to the effectiveness of strategic management and create a new vision of successful business performance in the long run.

Works Cited

WSJ Staff. “Microsoft CEO on the New Normal.” 2009. The Wall Street Journal. 03 October 2009. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/09/29/microsoft-ceo-on-the-new-normal/

Stuck with your Essay?

Get in touch with one of our experts for instant help!

Medicine & Healthcare Reform, Research Paper Example

Health ?nd Medicine, Research Paper Example

Time is precious

don’t waste it!

Plagiarism-free guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Secure checkout

Money back guarantee

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Voting as a civic responsibility, essay example.

Pages: 1

Words: 287

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

Words: 356

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

Words: 448

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Pages: 8

Words: 2293

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

Pages: 4

Words: 999

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Words: 371

Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) Essay

Stakeholders in shrm, how stakeholders evaluate effectiveness of shrm practice.

Modern business environment dictates that organizations need to employ effective strategies in their operations for assurance of success, survival, and growth. There are many changes taking place in the environment in which organizations operate. Therefore, organizations need to take adapt to those changes and equip themselves well with adequate ‘tools’ to help such organizations win and realize growth.

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a concept that has evolved to define modern organizations within perspectives of strategic planning. This research paper constitutes the goal of defining the concept, exploring it with regard to key stakeholders, and subsequently, assessing how SHRM goals can be evaluated effectively. Such information will be important especially to organizations in the process of working out their SHRM policies.

There are increasing levels of uncertainty coupled with intensification of competition that have combined to force organizations to put more emphasis on developing key core competencies (Yuksel, 2011). The development of these key competencies is seen to aim at increasing the competitive advantage of organizations in the dynamic environments.

Prahalad and Hamel (1994) observed that those organizations that possess unique and non-substitutable resources and competencies competitor organizations do not have, exhibit high chances of realizing sustainable advantage (cited in Yuksel, 2011). An organization’s competitive core competences and capabilities can be obtained from numerous sources.

Such sources include possessing effective technology, enhancing organizational learning, and encouraging strategic flexibility and innovative capacity found among the human resources (Yuksel, 2011). As a result, it can be deduced that effective creation, organization, and leverage of knowledge throughout the organizations are becoming increasingly the main sources of competitive advantage in fast changing, information-driven economy.

Boxall and Purcell (2003) contend that almost all organizations have strategies since it is the duty of organizations’ managers and employees to design and implement strategic choices for their organization to function on in achieving goals (Ojo, 2011). Known as strategic choices, organizations are forced to create and implement sustaining strategic choices that become vital in dealing with strategic problems and challenges within the organization.

In this way, a strategy may be developed and implemented by a particular company either to maintain viability of the organization or to produce sustained advantaged within the organization in dealing with the external environment (Ojo, 2011). In creating these strategies, the aspect of human resource has become important and research indicates that human resource practices play and influence the direction and shape of any particular strategy of an organization (Ojo, 2011).

Strategies represent an organization’s capacity to compete with other organizations successfully in the dynamic environment of business world. The aim of such strategy is to see an organization succeed and realize its goals while at the same time being able to survive and realize meaningful growth (Mathis and Jackson, 2010). Realizing and accepting this to be important and vital to the organization, modern-day organizations are characterized by formation of strategic plans.

In simple view, strategic plans are designed on the aim of utilizing the organization’s available resources in such a way that the organization is able to outperform its main competitors in the industry (Mathis and Jackson, 2010). Wheelen and Hunger (1995) provides a definition of strategic planning/management as “that set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation” (Bratton and Gold, 2001, p.39).

Given that in strategic planning there is long-term consideration, the concept can be taken to constitute all activities that have ‘vision of the future’ and at same time are updated constantly on both internal and the external environment (Bratton and Gold, 2001).

As a long as the operations and activities of an organization have to continue with an indefinite time, strategic management should constitute a continuous activity that an organization’s management team undertake. Moreover, as the process takes place, the management should encourage some forms of adjustments but all ingrained within the aspects of: management, environment, and the available resources (Bratton and Gold, 2001).

Strategic planning depends and gets enormous input from possessing the right human resource in the organization. The right human resource to be utilized in the strategic planning process may be present or the organization may need to outsource them from outside.

This entire process has resulted to what is known as strategic human resource (SHRM) in many organizations. SHRM has being described as the process that “entails providing input into organizational strategic planning and developing specific human resource initiatives to help achieve the organizational goals” (Mathis and Jackson, 2010, p.38).

Michael Armstrong, writing in a book titled ‘Strategic Human Resource Management: Guide to Action’ defines SHRM in the perspectives of organization’s strategic planning (Armstrong, 2008). According to the author, SHRM entails “an approach to the development and implementation of human resource strategies that are integrated with business strategies and enable the organization to achieve its goals” (Armstrong, 2008, p.1).

According to this definition, SHRM is a long-term process that largely succeeds on evaluating organization’s strategies and human resource strategies and how well the two categories of strategies can be merged to achieve organization goals.

SHRM as a concept cannot be divorced from the overall strategy that an organization envisions to undertake. In this way, SHRM is seen to be intertwined to the strategic objectives of an organization. Due to this, strategic human resource management has to emphasize the need for human resource plans and strategies to be formulated within the context of overall organizational strategies and objectives that are further, responsive to the changing nature of the organization’s external environment (Ojo, 2011).

This line of understanding leads to Wright and McMahan (1992) define SHRM as “the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the firm to achieve its goals” (Ojo, 2011).

As such, the role of SHRM is seen to constitute all aspects that contribute to organizational performance in achieving organizational goals and objectives. The themes of SHRM have been categorized into three: process of integration all human resource key practices into a comprehensive and functional unit; an aspect of incorporating and utilizing broad organizational goals; and lastly, responding to the external environment in the most strategic and effective way (Ojo, 2011).

In this way, SHRM can be described as a comprehensive framework of human resource that constitute process of evaluating the impacts of external and internal environments and instituting the appropriate human resource measures in terms of strategy to enable sustainable adaptation of the organization.

Organization functions and carries out its activities dependent on goodwill of its stakeholders. Multiple stakeholders of an organization exist and their role in the organization defines the success, growth, and sustainability of the organization. Some of notable organizational stakeholders include the investors, organization itself, in terms of management team, employees, customers and suppliers (Schuler and Jackson, 2007).

Each of these stakeholders affects and influences an organization in one way or the other. Human resource practices have been identified to affect all these stakeholders either directly or indirectly (Schuler and Jackson, 2007). As a result, strategic planning in the organization has the ability to impact the stakeholders differently. In turn, the stakeholder may undertake initiatives of evaluating the different human resource practices in accordance to their outcome.

SHRM builds on the need to create human resource strategies that exhibit capacity to satisfy multiple stakeholders of the organization. In this way, there is always need to create SHRM practices and strategies that address the concerns of key stakeholders in the organization (Schuler and Jackson, 2007).

Investors constitute the first category of organizational stakeholders. Investors constitute all groups of people who have channeled their resources into the organization with intend of realizing positive returns on those resources. Positive returns generally come in form of profits and dividends that investors enjoy.

As a result, introduction of SHRM practices in an organization usually has the blessing of investors since it is viewed to change the current operations in the organization and improve financial performance of the organization. Organization’s employees constitute another category of stakeholders of an organization (Deckop and Deckop, 2006).

Numerous researches have been carried out on the implication of various human resource practices on employees in different organizations (Deckop and Deckop, 2006). Human resource practices that may impact employees include recruitment and selection, training and development and performance management (Deckop and Deckop, 2006).

The aim of the research on these practices has been to evaluate the impact of the practices on individual outcomes. At the same time, more research has been done on the impact of practices on employee outcome such as on job satisfaction, motivation, socialization and career success (Deckop and Deckop, 2006).

Therefore, introduction of strategies of human resource management in most cases impact employees to great length. The third type of organizational stakeholder is the consumer, usually known as product-market stakeholder (Deckop and Deckop, 2006). Activities of any organization always aim at achieving customer satisfaction with regard to organization’s products or services (Deckop and Deckop, 2006).

As a result, customer satisfaction is seen as a mediating variable between human resource practices and business performance. In introducing SHRM practices an organization aims at changing the dimension of work climate that in turn lead to customer satisfaction through customer orientation, quality emphasis, teamwork, cooperation, and involvement of customers in product designs (Deckop and Deckop, 2006).

Evaluation of SHRM practices in an organization has to consider the impact of the SHRM system on all of the organization’s multiple stakeholders (Schuler and Jackson, 2007). Creating SHRM practices aims at introducing changes in the manner activities are performed in the organization. As a result effectiveness of such practices and systems are measured on objectives such as improvement in productivity, improvement in profitability, and the ability of the organization to sustain in the future (Schuler and Jackson, 2007).

On the part of employees, effectiveness of SHRM practices normally depends on total quality of the practices on the work within the organization, the innovativeness of the practices in contributing to realization of goals in the organization, ability of the practices to contribute to job satisfaction, enhancement, and enrichment (Schuler and Jackson, 2007). At the same time, employees have been regard as key resources of an organization in ensuring the success of any SHRM system.

In this way, the effectiveness of SHRM can be evaluated on the level of commitment and engagement by employees and overall satisfaction of employees (Schuler and Jackson, 2007). On the part of customers, evaluation of SHRM system put into consideration aspects such as quality and variety of products introduced in the market, the prices at which the products are being sold and overall services that accompany the products (Schuler and Jackson, 2007).

Human resource being one of the core components of an organization has to be re-organized and re-aligned to the new developments taking place. Re-organization and re-alignment in the modern world cannot take place within traditional and usual frameworks of human resource management.

Today there is need for strategic planning solutions that can guarantee organizations success. As a result, strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a concept that defines modern organizations that aim to realize organizational goals and objectives through strategic planning of its human resource. Introduction of SHRM systems in an organization is a path that sees ability of an organization to effectively compete in the dynamic environment and sustainability while remaining focused to the goals and objectives of stakeholders.

Armstrong, M. (2008). Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action . PA: Kogan Page Publishers. Web.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2001). Human resource management: theory and practice . NY: Routledge. Web.

Deckop, J. R. and Deckop, J. R. (2006). Human resource management ethics . NY: Information Age Publishing. Web.

Mathis, R. L. and Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human Resource Management . OH: Cengage Learning. Web.

Ojo, O. (2011). “Impact of strategic human resource practice on corporate performance in selected Nigerian banks.” Journal of Ege Akademik Bakis, Vol. 11, No. 3, p.339. Web.

Schuler, R. S. and Jackson, S. E. (2007). Strategic human resource management . MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Web.

Yuksel, M. (2011). “Core competencies of managers in an emerging market”. Journal of American Academy of Business, Vol. 17, No. 1, p.104. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, May 11). Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). https://ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-human-resource-management-shrm/

"Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)." IvyPanda , 11 May 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-human-resource-management-shrm/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)'. 11 May.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)." May 11, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-human-resource-management-shrm/.

1. IvyPanda . "Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)." May 11, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-human-resource-management-shrm/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)." May 11, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-human-resource-management-shrm/.

• Cirque du Soleil's- HRM practices
• The concept of strategic human resource management (SHRM)
• Becton Dickson Company’s SHRM
• Human Resource Policies in Organizations
• Becton Dickinson: Human Resource Management
• Conceptual Framework of Strategic Human Resource Management
• Strategic Human Resource in the Hospitality Industry: A Case of United States of America Hotels
• Strategic Human Resource Management Enhances Organizational Performance in Both Good and Bad Economic Times
• An Analysis of Tarmac Group Limited
• The Features of Strategic Human Resource Management
• Strategic management at JB Hi-Fi
• The roles and functions of a supervisor
• The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Perceived Stress
• Contemporary Issues in Human Resource
• California Office of Emergency Services